Nick Evans is gone. Off to Pittsburgh.
Evans was the type of player who always seemed always “just about ready” who always seemed like a go to option from the minors to fill in a hole in the majors.
The problem was there was always a player who seemed more attractive, more interesting than Evans. A player we wanted to see more of, when compared to Evans. So, constantly in his Mets career, Evans would be called up after a good minor league campaign, and then just ride the bench at the Major League level.
Specifically, there were a ton of 1B-OF players in the Mets farm system. Evans came up in the same time of Murphy, Duda, and Captain Kirk. Murphy's bat got him a sorta starting job, even if it was almost at a different position every day. Duda's upside may keep him around as a starter next year and who really knows what the future holds for Kirk. It's a very crowded picture for Evans.
In the end, Evans was a good at what we needed him to be good at, but wasn't good enough to start, or change the Mets. I hope nothing but the best for Evans as he joins the Pirates on a minor league deal. According to sources in the know, the Mets were in on bringing Evans back but the Pirates really wanted him.
So what about the Mets?
I'm actually really happy this happened for Nick. He did not have a future with the Mets, and maybe he will have one with the Pirates. As for the Mets, they needed to move on from Evans and take a risk on another player in the system, to see if he can be a surprise.
As stated before, part of the problem for Evans in the Mets system is that there were so many “Nick Evans” 1B-OF type players. Hopefully one of them will step up and overtake Evans place, or maybe we find one on the market. Change is good, and maybe we need change.
